Customer Reviews

A NOTE OF TRIUMPH: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Full disclosure: I'm the producer's husband. But I didn't know her when she made this movie -- so take that for what it's worth.

I'm sorry the previous reviewer gave this one star because it wasn't what they thought it was. This is a great little movie and a fascinating window into the world of Norman Corwin, who you could say was the William Shakespeare of radio.

Sadly, radio has ceased to be the powerful medium for creative expression it once was -- there are ghosts of it on NPR and similar networks, but once upon a time, radio was a big deal. This documentary gives us a look at the impact of "On a Note of Triumph," Corwin's most famous broadcast, transmitted on the eve of victory against the Axis in Europe.

Various well-known folks like Studs Terkel and Robert Altman, as well as Corwin himself, talk about the impact of that broadcast, which had the largest audience in history listening in. We learn how this now-obscure gentleman, at the top of his game, a superstar in his day, assembled a cast of other superstars to perform this amazing work -- people like Jimmy Stewart, Orson Welles, Edgar G. Robinson, and many more.

In addition, the documentary sends an important message: we had an opportunity back then to reevaluate our relationship to war, and our responsibility in victory to make a better world, not just an empire. It's probably this aspect of the project that won it the 2005 Best Short Documentary Academy Award. It's still a most timely message!

First-rate, moving exploration of one of the giants in a largely forgotten medium, radio drama. The single-star review should be dismissed entirely. Not understanding what you're buying should not be taken out on an outstanding piece of work. This review was written the day after Corwin died. The film makes a fitting and eloquent memorial.

Absolutely first-rate evocation of radio at its pinnacle as a persuasive medium. I grew up listening to the kind of radio programming Corwin epitomized and this documentary surely does it justice. Studs Terkel once complained to me that working people have forgotten how difficult and painful the birth of the labor movement was, and so they don't really appreciate it. He would probably have agreed that the history presented in this beautiful production should not be lost to us, either. This story is really something to be seen, appreciated and remembered.

I purchased this CD because I had heard about the famously eloquent and moving broadcast that took place at the end of World War II, fully expecting to hear the entire text of the radio script. Instead, the CD contains comments about it and just a few brief clips of the original. I was quite disappointed.